Unlawful, ever. O be wiser, Thou! Instructed that true knowledge leads to love, THE FOUNTAIN. WE talk'd with open heart and tongue A pair of Friends, though I was young, We lay beneath a spreading oak, Beside a mossy seat; And from the turf a fountain broke, And gurgled at our feet. "Now, Matthew!" said I, "let us match This water's pleasant tune With some old Border-song, or Catch, That suits a summer's noon. Or of the Church-clock and the chimes That half-mad thing of witty rhymes In silence Matthew lay and eyed "Down to the vale this water steers, How merrily it goes! 'Twill murmur on a thousand years, And flow as now it flows. And here, on this delightful day, How oft, a vigorous man, I lay My eyes are dim with childish tears, For the same sound is in my ears Thus fares it still in our decay : And yet the wiser mind Mourns less for what age takes away Than what it leaves behind. The Blackbird in the summer trees, The Lark upon the hill, Let loose their carols when they please, Are quiet when they will. With Nature never do they wage A foolish strife; they see A happy youth, and their old age But we are press'd by heavy laws; We wear a face of joy, because We have been glad of If there is one who need bemoan The household hearts that were his own, TRUST IN THE SAVIOUR. NOT seldom, clad in radiant vest, The smoothest seas will sometimes prove, To the confiding Bark, untrue; And if she trust the stars above, They can be treacherous too. The umbrageous Oak, in pomp outspread, But Thou art true, incarnate Lord! I bent before thy gracious throne, -nor peace alone, And peace was given, But faith, and hope, and ecstacy! ON THE DEATH OF HIS LATE MAJESTY. WARD of the Law !-dread Shadow of a King! Whose Realm had dwindled to one stately room; Whose universe was gloom immersed in gloom, Darkness as thick as Life o'er Life could fling, Yet haply cheer'd with some faint glimmering Of Faith and Hope; if thou, by nature's doom, Gently hast sunk into the quiet tomb, Why should we bend in grief, to sorrow cling, When thankfulness were best ?-Fresh-flowing tears, Or, where tears flow not, sigh succeeding sigh, Yield to such after-thought the sole reply Which justly it can claim. The Nation hears In this deep knell-silent for threescore years, An unexampled voice of awful memory! LINES WRITTEN ON HEARING THAT THE DEATH OF FOX WAS HOURLY EXPECTED. LOUD is the Vale! the Voice is up With which she speaks when storms are gone, A mighty Unison of streams! Of all her Voices One! Loud is the Vale ;-this inland Depth In peace is roaring like the Sea; Yon Star upon the mountain-top Sad was I, even to pain depressed, And many thousands now are sad- A power is passing from the earth That Man, who is from God sent forth, EXTRACT FROM THE CUMBERLAND BUT deem not this Man useless.-Statesmen ! ye Who have a broom still ready in your hands * Importuna e grave salma.-MICHAEL ANGELO. |